The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
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In November 1996, a little over 23 years ago, I began writing quarterly mining news summaries for the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG). Shortly after that, I began writing monthly summaries for this publication's ancestor, Mining News Alaska, and have continued both monthly, quarterly and annual mining news summaries ever since. With this summary, I have written my last Alaska update for North of 60 Mining News. When I wrote my first summary, Greens Creek was milling only...
Resolution Minerals Ltd. (formerly Northern Cobalt Ltd.) Dec. 16 announced that it has formally entered into an option to joint venture Millrock Resources Inc.'s 64North gold project in Alaska. Previously known as the Goodpaster project, 64North includes nine claim blocks – West Pogo, Shaw, Eagle, LMS-X, South Pogo, East Pogo, North Pogo, Last Chance and Divide – covering roughly 160,000 acres in the Goodpaster Mining District, a gold-rich area of Interior Alaska anchored by...
As the year winds down, mineral industry evaluations for 2019 are being published at a rapid rate. One of the most interesting such global reviews is EY Global Mining and Metals' annual "risk radar" for mining and metals, outlining what mining companies perceive as the top ten risks facing them in the near future. This publication stated that, for the second straight year, "social license to operate" remains the number one risk facing mining companies in 2020. This was...
Northern Cobalt Ltd. (now Resolution Minerals Ltd.) Nov. 22 reported that the West Pogo access road has reached high-priority drill targets at Aurora Creek and a well is being drilled in preparation for a winter drill program slated to get underway by mid-February 2020. West Pogo is one of nine blocks of state of Alaska mining claims Millrock Resources Inc. has acquired and staked in the Goodpaster Mining District. Together known as the 64North (formerly Goodpaster) project, t...
Millrock Resources Inc. Nov. 4 reported that all the pieces are falling in place for an early 2020 drill program at West Pogo, one of nine blocks of claims that make up the company's district-scale Goodpaster gold project in Interior Alaska. In mid-October, Australia-based Northern Cobalt Ltd. cut a deal to earn up to a 60 percent interest in the Goodpaster project by investing US$20 million in exploration, plus paying US$200,000 in cash and issuing 38 million in Northern...
An abnormally long fall has allowed the Alaska mining industry to extend seasonal work well into mid-October, creating a lot of new information about project work conducted around the state. Exploration efforts, in particular, benefitted from this additional field time. Based on information available to date, 2019 exploration expenditures are expected to be in the $135-140 million range, well ahead of the $120-125 million exploration spending tracked for 2018. In addition,...
Trilogy Metals Inc. Oct. 28 reported the final set of assay results from the 2019 drill program at Bornite, part of the company's Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in the Ambler mining district of Northwest Alaska. The open-pit portion of Bornite hosts 40.5 million metric tons of indicated resource averaging 1.02 percent (913 million pounds) copper; and 84.1 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.95 percent (1.77 billion lb) copper. The underground portion of...
Crystal Lake Mining Corp. reported that drills have tapped a new porphyry copper-gold zone at Newmont Lake; and surface sampling has discovered an entirely new hydrothermal system containing high-grade gold , silver, copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc and lead mineralization along a separate corridor on the northern British Columbia property. The porphyry copper-gold mineralization, announced on Oct. 9, was encountered by drilling at 72' Zone, which is about 2,300 meters northeast...
Australia-based Northern Cobalt Ltd. has agreed to invest as much as US$20 million over the next four years to earn up to a 60 percent interest in Millrock Resources Inc.'s enormous land package covering highly prospective gold targets in Alaska's Goodpaster Mining District. Goodpaster has gained a lot of attention since Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s 2018 purchase of the Pogo gold mine at the heart of the district. While it has been just over a year since the acquisition,...
If you have watched the metals markets over the last month, you know why Alaska's mineral industry has surged, stalled, swerved, swooped, slowed, shelved and stuttered, sometimes all at the same time! Gold has gone above US$1,500 per ounce; copper pundits are predicting an increasingly dour future; zinc markets are looking to dive below $1.00 per pound; tin markets have marched strongly upward due to supply disruptions; and silver bulls are calling for annual worldwide...
Giga Metals Corp. Sept. 19 announced expanded resources and improved grades at its Turnagain nickel project in northern British Columbia. Incorporating the 36 infill holes drilled in 2018, Turnagain now hosts 1.07 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.22 percent (5.21 billion pounds) nickel and 0.13 percent (312.4 million lb) cobalt. This is a 24 percent increase in measured and indicated tonnage compared to the last resource calculated in conjunct...
The initial results from 2019 drilling at the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects in Northwest Alaska has the Trilogy Metals team excited, especially the first hole from the Sunshine exploration target about eight miles (13 kilometers) west of the Arctic Mine project. The US$18.2 million carried out this year at UKMP included six holes (1,357 meters) of exploration drilling at the Sunshine prospect, 10 holes (7,610 meters) of resource upgrade and expansion drilling at the Bornite...
Giga Metals Corp. July 29 reported that Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has agreed to be part of a consortium of government agencies and industry partners, including Giga Metals, that have agreed to fund research into the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) into silicate mine residue, including ultramafic residue from mineral deposits such as those being advanced at Giga Metals' Turnagain nickel-cobalt deposit in northern British Columbia. "We are proud to support this...
Earlier this month Reuters reported that several agencies within the U.S. Federal government were "rapidly assessing" our domestic ability to mine and refine rare earth elements and utilize those 17 super cool elements in value-added products needed for a wide and ever-growing array of consumer and national defense products. Not surprisingly, mining industry officials demurred when quizzed about supplying information on where rare elements might be mined in the U.S. and how...
Northern Cobalt Ltd. July 1 reported that metallurgical sampling of rock chip samples from its Snettisham project demonstrates the potential to produce a high-grade magnetite (iron) concentrate with vanadium credits, providing further confidence in the economic viability of this Southeast Alaska project. In June, the Australia-based company estimated that the mafic-ultramafic Alaskan zoned intrusive complex at Snettisham hosts 297 to 551 million metric tons of high-grade...
Earlier this month S&P Global put out a summary indicating that during the first quarter of 2019 metals like copper, zinc and nickel were up quarter over quarter by 11 percent, 22 percent and 25 percent, respectively. More recently gold has skyrocketed beyond the $1,400-per-ounce mark for the first time in many months. Correspondingly, the mining industry's aggregate market cap also rebounded strongly in the period after four bearish quarters, rising 12 percent to $1.43...
Canada is one of the world's richest sources of raw commodities, not least of which are the so-called rare earth elements. While China currently dominates global production and hosts some 35 percent of the world's known resources, observers believe Canada is endowed with world-class rare earths deposits, which could account for as much as 40-50 percent of the world's REE reserves. Demand for rare earth elements, along with lithium minerals, tin and other critical materials,...
In the famous words of Sherlock Holmes, the game is afoot! After seasonally slower news from Alaska's mining industry in March and April, the dam has broken with over two dozen Alaska mining project news releases issued in the last month. Including those projects moving forward that have not released their 2019 plans, Alaska has become a very busy place under the sun. All of our major metal mines reported strong performances in the first quarter, several of Alaska's most...
When it comes to managing its more than 1.5 million acres of land in a region of Southcentral Alaska renowned for its natural beauty, Copper River salmon, abundant wildlife and one of the richest lodes of copper to ever by mined on earth, Ahtna Inc. balances development for the prosperity of its current shareholders and preservation of resources for future generations. An important facet of this management is ensuring that there are plenty of plants, fish and wildlife to suppo...
When it comes to mineral exploration incentives, currency exchange and infrastructure, Alaska is at a disadvantage in the realm of attracting exploration investments from Canada and Australia, countries that are home to the majority of mining companies. The Far North State's vast and underexplored mineral potential, however, trumps these handicaps in the minds of a growing number of miners and mineral explorers. Mining executives from around the globe perennially rank Alaska...
Though mineral exploration in Yukon Territory this year lagged the pace seen in 2018, mine development projects advanced at a steady clip in 2019, while several past-producing mines moved toward resuming output. Yukon ranked fourth in Canada for projected spending on mineral exploration and deposit evaluation for 2018, according to statistics distributed by Natural Resources Canada. Spending for mineral exploration and deposit evaluations totaled C$249.4 million, made up of C$...
Whether it be precious metals such as gold and silver, base metals like copper and zinc, or battery metals like nickel and cobalt, northern British Columbia is rich in the type of metal deposits that junior mining companies are hoping to discover and majors are wanting to mine. Couple this mineral endowment with good infrastructure – especially stacked up against the other jurisdictions in the North of 60 Mining News coverage area – and northern B.C. continues to draw str...
Primarily focused on gold, copper and silver, Millrock Resources Inc. is a project generating mineral exploration company that has built a large portfolio of highly prospective mineral exploration properties in Alaska, British Columbia and Mexico. Many of the projects the company has generated have been sold recently to other companies in exchange for cash and shares of the company acquiring and exploring the project. For 2019, Millrock focused largely on amassing a large...
The strength and durability of steel and other alloys is greatly enhanced by adding a small amount of vanadium, currently the primary use of this critical mineral. While this toughness is legendary, the future of vanadium could rest in another set of more subtle traits that could make it the element of choice for large-scale storage of renewable energy generated by wind and solar. "Vanadium is becoming more widely used in green technology applications, especially in battery...
Cobalt is a critical safety ingredient in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries powering the ever-increasing number of electric vehicles traveling global highways and a plethora of cordless electrical devices. "Globally, the leading use is in the manufacture of cathode materials for rechargeable batteries – primarily lithium-ion, nickel-cadmium, and nickel-metal-hydride batteries – which are used in consumer electronics, electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, energy sto...
